Good Morning Mask

next recipe>

Strawberries, yogurt and OJ - perfect ingredients for a beauty breakfast for your face! The antioxidant vitamin C in the berries and juice are essential for maintenance of collagen - the most important component of the connective tissue underlying your skin. When applied topically, these same foods have a mild exfoliating effect.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ripe strawberries, leaves and stem removed
• 1 tablespoon plain yogurt (full fat variety works best)
• 1 teaspoon orange juice

Directions:

Blend or mix together strawberries and yogurt and OJ until smooth. Massage into face and neck, using circular fingertip motions. Allow to sit for 10-20 minutes. Use a warm, wet towel to wipe off, splashing face with water to remove all traces of the mask. Try following up with green tea toner, then moisturize per your usual skincare routine.

Strawberries are relatively high in salicylates, a beta-hydroxy acid whose large molecule size allows it to clean up dead surface cells without penetrating too deeply into the skin. Thus primed, the skin is able to receive full benefit of the alpha-hydroxy acids in orange juice, which are then able to more thoroughly break down pore blockages and clear the skin surface of epithelial debris.

Think of the process like scraping food off dishes before washing them. After scraping (beta-hydroxy), rinsing and soaping (alpha hydroxy), the strawberry seeds act like the brush scouring off all remaining dirt and residue. This is a good mask for treating blemishes, encouraging skin cell turnover, and improving circulation.